Women Are the First to Judge Other Women: Vanessa Marano Talks About the Switched at Birth Rape Episode

In a recent, controversial episode of the ABC Family hit show Switched at Birth, Bay Kennish is the victim of what appears to be date rape—or, as the synopsis page describes it: "After a night of drinking with her friend Tank, Bay wakes to find that she doesn't remember all the details of the night." The episode kicked off a firestorm online, with fans of the show taking sides—either defending Tank or blaming Bay.

Last week, Switched at Birth star Vanessa Marano, who plays Bay Kennish on the long-running teen series, stopped by Glamour's offices—and talked to us about the story line, the aftermath, and what this means for Bay.

Glamour: How did you prepare for this story line?

Vanessa Marano: It's very hard to play a character who doesn't have a clear point of view. As an actor you go through all the acting classes, and they tell you your character always has to have a point of view—whether it agrees with your own personal point of view or not, that character has to have a strong point of view. And Bay is a character who always has a strong point of view. Always. Whether she's right or wrong, it's always super strong.

This is the first time that she doesn't know what's happening. She doesn't know what to feel, basically because in a way she doesn't feel like a victim, but the people around her keep trying to make her feel more and more like a victim. She doesn't feel like the "poster girl for campus assault." She doesn't want to be that either. She's just trying to push everything down, which eventually just erupts to the surface because you can't repress things—that doesn't work out so well.

So it was an interesting place to be from a performer's standpoint. I couldn't agree with her or disagree with her because she didn't have an opinion, she was just piecing everything together. And going into it, I was very much like: I don't know how to play this, I have no idea how to play this. Because she doesn't know what's going on. So in a way that was almost helpful—because since she has no idea, I had no idea. What that ended up doing, which was the goal of the episode and what I think what everyone got out of the episode is that it stirs up conversation.

Literally—every scene we shot leading up to it, after it—everyone had an opinion and everyone had a point of view and everyone had a perspective. And if you were a grip, you had a perspective, if you were the guy in craft services you had a perspective, and so we got a lot of different opinions, which was super helpful.

Glamour: Speaking of feedback, did you feel like there was anyone in the room who had an eye-opening aha moment working on this episode?

Marano: You know what's so interesting, what I found with this whole thing—men are siding more with Bay and women are siding more with Tank. That's what I've found in having this conversation with people.

Women are the first to go to: "She should have been watching out for herself, she shouldn't have done that, she knew better, she's screwing him over."

Because as a woman, we're brought up that you can't leave your drink unattended, and you can't walk outside alone at night. You're brought up with that mentality, and I think women are the first to judge women.

Whereas with men, and I specifically saw this a lot with older men too, who are fathers of daughters. But all men, in general too, were the first to be like: "He's in the wrong. He's the guy, he should know better. I don't care how drunk you are, you don't do that. He was totally in the wrong, he should have been looking out for her, he should have taken care of her." And it's very interesting to see that the different different gender sides with the opposite gender.

Are you surprised that women have sided with Tank and men have rushed to Bay's defense? You can watch the episodes right here. Tell us what you think in the comments below.